A Trust Betrayed tells the stories of dozens of individuals who believe they or their family members were harmed by the pollution at Camp Lejeune, but the full extent of the damages may never be fully known.

Some people who drank tainted water at the base have already died of illnesses that may have been caused by the toxic exposure, and they or their families had no idea what happened. Others may have come down with debilitating diseases after living at the base but never heard about the contamination so they never made a connection.

Perhaps the most tragic story of all is the large number of cases of breast cancer in men who were either born at Camp Lejeune, spent time there as children, or were stationed there as Marines while the drinking water was contaminated. More than 80 cases of male breast cancer have been found among Camp Lejeune’s victims, and there could be many more who suffered from or died of the rare disease but never knew the cause.

One of those victims whose story is told in A Trust Betrayed was Peter Devereaux, a Marine from Massachusetts who spent time at Camp Lejeune in the 1980s and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 at the age of 45. After a six-year battle, Devereaux died last August, unable to reach his goal of seeing his daughter graduate from college. The newspaper in Andover, Mass., told his heartbreaking story last fall.